Her Counterfeit Husband (35 page)

She tightened her grip on the candlestick.  If she was going to make her move, she’d have to do it before he lunged for her.
She bolted for the door, but he was quicker.
  He wrapped his arm a
round her shoulders and drew her
to his
side.  She tried to hit him with the candlestick, but he grabb
ed it from her and threw it aside
.  Then he pressed his hand over her mouth.  Everything happened so fast she didn’t even have the chance to scream for help.

“You shouldn’t have gone into that bedchamber, Anna,” Lord Mason quietly spoke in her ear.  “But since you decided to get involved, maybe you can help me.”

Keeping his hold on her, he forced her into Jason’s bedchamber and opened another set of curtains, making the room brighter.  She struggled against him, but it was no use.  H
e was much too strong for her.

“It’s no use trying to get away, Anna.  If you cooperate, I’ll let you and that bastard you’re carrying live.  You ought to know by now that I never intended to kill you
.  I just want the money.  Where
does Jason keep it?”

She shook her head.

“Oh, excuse me.” He removed his hand from her mouth.  “Where is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Liar!” he hissed.

“But I really don’t know.  My husband never told me where he kept the money, and I
wasn’t allowed in this room.”

“Maybe that’s true for my brother, but it’s not true for that imposter you brought here to take his place.” Befo
re she could respond, he chuckled
.  “I know all about Alast
air.  I know my brother died.  I know
you
and
that butler of yours buried him.  Somehow you found Alastair and convinced him to play the part.  There’s no sense in denying it. 
I’m not an unreasonable person.  All I need is enough money to marry Lady Templeton.  Once I get it, I’ll go to British India, and I’ll never be a problem again.”

“I’m telling you the truth.  I don’t know where the money is.”

Grunting, he shut and locked the door connecting her room with Jason’s.
  Then he locked the door leading to the hallway.
  She gulped. 
She was trapped. 
Ap
pleton would be there soon, but he
wouldn’t be able to get in
to the room so he could
help her.
She was alone with him, and that meant she was at his mercy.

“I don’t know why everyone insists on making things difficult
,” he grumbled
. 
“
First my brother, then Alastair, and now you.  It’s all so simple.  I need money.  I can’t marry someone
as wealthy as Lady Templeton
if I
don’t bring enough of my own money into the marriage
.” He walked over to the window and opened it.  “So the matter is really simple.  Either you give me some money or jewels or something I can use, or you’re going
to have a terrible fall out the
window.  Maybe you’ll survive it.  Maybe you won’t.
  But
i
s it worth risking
your life and your child’s life to find out
?
”

She backed away from the window
, her heartbeat racing.  “I don’t know where the money is, but I have diamonds that are worth a good sum.  If you let me go back into my bedchamber, I can get them.  I also have some money tucked away in my cabinet.”

“But will it be enough for what I need?”

He made a move toward her, and she took a step away from him.  She had hoped to get close to the door leading to her bedchamber, but he was closer to it now.  She grimaced.  He had her blocked.

Someone knocked on her
bedchamber door, making her jump.  Lord Mason pressed his fingers to his lips and shook his head in a silent warning that she better not say anything.  She
clenched and unclenched her hands
.

“Your G
race?” Appleton called out from her bedchamber door.  “Do you need help?”

She finally decided to answer, and opened her mouth when Lord Mason pulled out a pistol and aimed it at her.  She closed her mouth.  She couldn’t deny he’d thought through everything.

“I do
n’t want to get blood on my hands,” Lord Mason whispered, “but you’re forcing my hand.  You think I want to live off the pathetic monthly allo
tment my brother allowed me for the rest of my life?  I want to be free of his strings, strings that even now haunt me since Alastair refused to help me.”

“I’ll help you,” she whispered, clutching her robe and praying he wasn’t quick with the trigger.  “Tell me where you think the money is.”

This time Appleton knocked on Jason’s bedchamber door.  She jerked and nearly cried aloud, but the pistol made her stop.

“Your G
race?” Appleton called out, knocking again.  “Can you get to the door?”

Lord Mason motioned to the small room off to the
side of the bedchamber.  Without a word, she hurried to the room.  She took a deep breath and rubbed her sweaty palms on her robe.  This couldn’t be happening.  It was a nightmare.  She was still in bed, safely under her blanket and fast asleep.  Soon she’d wake up and breathe a sigh of relief.  She cleared her throat and turned to face
him.

“My brother kept important
items in
here,” Lord Mason told her in a low voice
as he gestured to the desk.  “If money isn’t in here
, there should be information on where I can find it.
  Or
there might
even
be
some valuables
in here.  Whatever is in here, I know there’s something I can use
.
”

“Why don’t you open the drawers?”

“I did, but there’s
a box in the
top one that requires a key.
”

“You think I know where the key is?”

He clicked the gun.  “You might not have been close to
my brother, but I saw the way you were with Alastair.  You
and Alastair were close enough where he would have told you anything.”

“But I never looke
d at the contents in this desk.”

“I’m starting to lose my patience, Anna.”

Her gaze went to his gun then
to the thin line on his lips and
hard glint in his eyes
.  As much as she tried to keep calm, her hands shook and tears filled her eyes.  “I didn’t even know there was a box in one of these drawers.” She motioned to the drawers.  “Which one is it?”

“Good try, but I don’t believe you.”

She pulled a drawer open and
saw a pile of papers.

“The next one over.”

She opened it.  By the light of the moon, she
saw the box he was talking about.  Though she knew there was a very slim chance it would open, she tried it anyway.  The lock held firm.  She searched the drawer for a key but didn’t find it.

“Either you get the key or I’ll take care of you.  Whether that means shoving you out the win
dow or using the pistol, you
decide.”

“All right, all right.  Um… 
If a key was that important to your brother, he would have kept it in the bedchamber, right?  He’d want it close by in case he needed it.”

He waved
the pistol to the door
, so she hurried out of the room.  As long as she was looking for the key, he might hold off on hu
rting her.  She scanned the bedchamber
and tried to figure out where he
r first husband might have put the
key.
  Her gaze went to
the cabinet.  That was as good a place to search as any.

“Uh…one time, your brother mentioned the
cabinet.  I-I can’t remember exactly what he said about it, but it seemed…actually, I heard it reported that…he wouldn’t let anyone—not anyone at all—near it.  T
h
-that being the case, the key must be here.”

She knew she was tripping over her words, but she had to say something.  Where was Appleton?  What was taking him so long?  She opened the cabinet and searched it.  Her hands sh
ook as she fumbled around for the key
.

A harsh bang resonated from her bedchamber door, and Appleton yelled for her to tell them if she was there. 
Them?
  Who else had Appleton retrieved to help him?

“Anna,” Lord Mason snapped, jutting the pistol into her side.

She shrieked and jumped away from it.

He covered her mouth with his hand and pointed the pistol at her head.  “Not a smart move, Anna,” he growled and dragged her over to the open window.

She tried to scream and struggled to get away from him, but he succeeded in pulling her to the window where a blast of cool air hit her face.
Appleton called out her name as he pounded
on Jason’s bed
chamber door.

“Tell him to go away,” Lord Mason ordered.

He lifted his hand from her mouth, and she gasped for air.

“Do it,” he hissed, jabbing the pistol to the side of her head.  “Tell hi
m to go
away.”

“Go—” Her voice cracked so she inhaled and tried again.  “Go away!”

“Good
.”
When Appleton
pounded the door hard enough that it cracked, Lord Mason
added, “Tell him to stop at once.”

“S-stop!” she forced out.  “I’m…I’m fine.  Stop hitting the door.”

He let go of her but kept the gun pointed at her.  “Go to the door, open it, and tell him you’re fine.”

She glanced at the gun and gave a slow nod, praying he wouldn’t hurt her if she complied.  He was desperate, that much was certain, but he didn’t want to jeopardize his future with Lady Templeton so maybe if she gave him what he wanted, he’d leave and never come back.  Maybe this was going to be the end of it.  Her eyes met his, searching for the assurance she needed.  He stood by the window, so she couldn’t make out his expression.  All she could make out was his silhouette.  But then a hand rose up from behind him and clasped onto the windowsill.  Sca
red, she let out a terrified
scream.

The silhouette of a gentleman rose behind him and grabbed him.  Lord M
ason fired a shot into the air
.  Something in her snapped, and she ran to the bedchamber door as the two gent
lemen struggled at the window.

Before she could unlock it
, Appleton and the gardener broke down the door.  Lord Mason and the other gentleman fell to the floor.  Through the moonlight, it took her a moment to real
ize
Jason
had attacked Lord Mason
.  Another shot fired int
o the air, and everyone ducked. 
Jason
struggled to get the gun away from Lord Mason, but Lord Mason tripped
on Jason’s foot and fell out the window.

For a moment, everyone stood still, shocked.  Then all at once, they headed for the window. 
Appleton was the first one to join Jason at the window, followed by the gardener and Anna.  They peered down at the ground where Lord Mason was on the ground, his neck and legs twisted at an angle that could only mean he was dead.  As awful as it was to know he wasn’t alive, she couldn’t deny the relief she felt at knowing he was no longer going to be a threat to anyone.

She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands.  Was she a horrible person for being glad another gentleman was dead?  First her husband and now Lord Mason…

Someone wrapped her in a protective hug, and his arms were so wonderfully familiar to her that she didn’t need to look at him to know he was Jason.  He’d returned home to her.

“Appleton told me you were in trouble,” Jason whispered, rubbing her back in comforting, circular motions.  “
Since the doors up here were locked and
I saw the
ladder leading up to the window,
I decided to climb up here
.”

She took a moment to settle
her nerves before looking at Appleton who
was still peering down at Lord Mason.  He
shook his head.
  “The only place he’s going is in the ground.”

“I’ll get his body,” the gardener said and hurried out
of the room
.

“What did he want?” Jason asked, pulling away from her so he could see her face.  “Did he hurt you?”

“No, he didn’t hurt me,” she quickly assured him, stil
l shaking.  “He wanted money.  He
thought there was something in the desk in that room
he could use.” She gestured to the small room.
“He wanted a key
so he could open the
box.”